Deaf Chicken?

[birdson]

I have a white plymouth rock hen named Dorris. She (unlike the other hens) becomes extremely distressed at times. She begins to screech very loudly when she strays too far from the group and realizes the other hens are out of sight, even when all the hens are clucking and cooing. She can’t figure out where the other hens are (even if they are all vocally communicating with each other) unless they are in her direct line of sight. Once she can see them again, she stops screeching.

None of my other hens exhibit this behavior at all. All of my hens have been vaccinated for Marek’s Disease. Is she deaf? Should I do something about it?

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to BYC.

Can you get clear pictures of each eye?

 

[BugStalker]

Does she react to noises the others do? If you look under her small ear feathers, you should see her ear canal. This can become clogged due to infection or something.

 

[birdson]

Theres nothing wrong with her eyes, she can see perfectly well because she reacts immediately to anything she can see. I’m worried that she can’t hear.

 

[birdson]

I can’t tell if she hears anything. When I make noise she doesn’t react but neither do the other chickens really. Thanks for the tip about her ears. I looked inside her ear holes (which she protested very loudly about). I also looked inside the other hen’s ears for comparison. They don’t look clogged at all to me. Could she just be a really anxious chicken?

 

[BugStalker]

I think pictures of the eyes are to rule out ocular Merrick's resistant to the vaccine. If you don't see redness or discharge in the ear canal or nose/mouth, it's not really sounding like an infection. I have had young pullets act similar and grow out of it.

 

[Peepsi]

I know that in dogs, sometimes white dogs are prone to deafness. I am not sure if this extends to chickens, but it from your description, it sure sounds like she's deaf. This of course, means you technically would have the ability to sneak up on her and make a loud noise, see if she spins around or not? Worth a try. Or better yet, cage her for the night in the house, wait til her eyes are closed and she's sleeping. Then make a very loud sound right next to the cage (loud enough to wake a sleeping hen). If she opens her eyes and startles, she's not deaf. If she doesn't move, she's probably deaf.

 

[birdson]

Her eyes are bright and have no swelling or redness to them. She’s a full grown hen, a little over a year old. I’m going to try to get her to react to noise. Apart from being anxious when she cant see the other hens, she is perfectly healthy.

 

[That_australian_lad]

get some food scraps and bang the bottom of the box

 

[That_australian_lad]

they should come runing